History of Stolen Kiss

The first Stolen Kiss was built by the American Yacht Association under the license of Irwin in Clearwater, Florida in 1972. Only 7 hulls were built from this Sparkman and Stephens design, two as ketch and five as sloop. Her design features, coupled with being a centerboard makes her very sea kindly. She draws 1.2m with the board up and 3m with it down.

The hull is constructed of high impact fiberglass reinforced polyester resin. The structure consists largely of woven roving. The thickness of the hull varies according to structural demands, ranging from approximately one inch in the keel section to 3/8ths at the sheer.

There has been no talk from her previous owners or any evidence of osmosis.

The deckhouse, deck and cockpit are molded in one piece of fiberglass reinforced polyester resin with molded-in colours. End grain balsa wood is used as a core material to save weight and increase rigidity.

We are only the 5th owners. She was built to order by an American couple who planned to travel around the world. Plans changed and they sold her to a Brazillian couple who took her on their dream sail through the tropics and around the globe. She was then sold to another Brazillian couple who sailed her around the Carribean. We purchased her in Mooloolaba, Queensland, Australia from a French man who found her in New York and sailed her across the Pacific 3 times. Since our ownership we have sailed her up the west coast of Australia, around SE Asia, across the Indian Ocean and back.

She was launched as ‘Brasileirinho’, canary yellow in colour; her namesake. From there she went to a bright green colour, then the stunning awlgrip Royal Blue and named Wallaby.

With lots of rum, we christened her ‘Stolen Kiss’. As a boy, Peter’s father had a small dinghy called Stolen Kiss. We can only assume, as an English gentleman he thought it very risqué to steal a kiss from a woman, undoubtedly, Peter’s mother. Stolen Kiss sails with grace and dignity. The photo of the original Stolen Kiss, a small dinghy, is on our bulkhead.






In the Hermitage Gallery in St Petersburg, there is a painting of ‘The Stolen Kiss’ by Jean-Honore Fragonard.

The second Stolen Kiss was purchased in San Carlos, Mexico in October, 2009. She is a Hylas 47, built at the Queen Long Shipyard in Taiwan in 1989, designed by Sparkman and Stephens (of course!!).  The typical trade mark of these vessels is their incredible attention to detail and impeccable joinery. The S&S design makes for a fast, sea kindly, stunningly beautiful yacht. Colour??? Of course had to be blue!

She had one owner and was never under charter. Her only sailing had been from Florida to San Carlos via the Carribean. From the Baja, Mexico, we will cruise her down to Central/South America (not straying from the tropics!) and then across the puddle to Australia.